John keller



UNITED" STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN KELLER, OF NEW- YORK, N. Y.

TICKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,113, dated May 14, 1889. Application filed October 1, 1887. Serial No. 251,162. (No model.)

To aZl whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN KELLER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tickets; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and accurate description of the same.

My invention is applicable and specially designed for use where tickets are sold for single trips and used but once-as, for instance, at the ferries and elevated railroads in New York city, though I do not confine myself to use in those localities. Referring, however, to the usage at the New York ferries and elevated roads by way of illustration, so that the object and utility of my invention may be understood, the practice is this: Tickets are printed on long strips of moderately-stiff paper or very thin card-board. These strips are transversely punctured or perforated at stated intervals-that is, at the line of junction between adjoining tickets so that they may be torn apart easily and quickly as they are sold. The tickets are usually numbered consecutively and are sold singly, because when deposited in the ticketbox at the entrance they are mutilated as they enter. purchasers are congregated nearly all the time, and very frequently a considerable crowd. The ticket is invariably thrown down upon the counter in or directly in front of the ticket-sellers hand-hole, and the purchaser must remove it instantly or he blocks the way of those who follow him. To pick up from a smooth table of marble or glass a small ticket of thin paper requires a degree of dexterity not possessed by many. My invention is intended to relieve this difficulty by increasing the apparent thickness of the ticket and giving its edge an elevation from the table, to render it easy to grasp with the fingers, without adding at all to its real bulk or cost to the party who employs it.

The result which I seek is attained most conveniently and most cheaply by embossing or corrugating, so that when a ticket rests on a flat surface it will rest upon and be supported by the embossed or corrugated prominences, leaving the true edge elevated from the table. The corrugations may be in any At these ticket-offices several.

form or design desired and ought to be pro= tuberant equally on each side of the ticket, so that whichever side may fall uppermost the edges will be raised from the table. This is clearly shown in Figure 1 of the drawings,

A is the ticket strip or sheet, usually a strip having the width of the ticket and transverse lines of perforations at the points, where the tickets may be separated by tearing off. These ticket-strips are prepared and,

printed in any customary and proper way. They are then caused to pass through a proper machine for corrugating or embossing them to produce points of elevation, 19, on both front and back faces. These points of elevation may assume such forms, ornamental or otherwise, as may be desired. They do not increase materially the thickness of the package of tickets, because when properly de signed the prominence on one ticket falls into the depression of the one next to it, and so on; but when the ticket has been separated and laid upon the counter the prominences b will support it with its edges all around clear from the table and render it easy to pick it up.

Having described my invention, I claim- 1. A ticket adapted for single-trip use on ferries or railways, permanently provided with a prominence or projection adapted to support the body of the ticket upon a plane surface with its edges elevated at a distance above said surface, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. A series of tickets adapted for sin gletrip use upon ferries or railways, said tickets being situated in contact with each other and being provided with prominences and depressions, the projecting portion of one ticket corresponding with and resting in the depres sion of the next.

3. A ticket'strip in width equal to one dimension of the ticket, with transverse lines of perforations at the points of separation between the tickets, and provided with points of prominence on one side and corresponding depressions on the other, whereby the prominences of one ticket enter the depressions of the one next above or below it when they are upon a plane surface, with its edges elevated packed together. at a distance above said surface, substantially 4. A ticket-strip consisting of a series of as and for the purpose described. tickets adapted for single-trip use 011 ferries JOHN KELLER. 5 or railways, each ticket being embossed with lVitnesses:

a prominence or projection adapted to sup- JOHN A. ROE, port the body of the ticket, when detached ADAM KELLER. 

